The House of Representatives has
threatened to push for the scrap of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation
Board (JAMB)

It also mandated its Committee on
Tertiary Education and Services to investigate the circumstances surrounding
the reduction of JAMB cut-off mark.

This followed a motion by Rep
Hassan Saleh (Benue-APC) on the “Need to Investigate the Reduction in the
Cut-off Marks for Admissions into Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria’’ at plenary
on Tuesday.

Saleh expressed concern that the
new policy was bound to lower the standard and quality of education from the
tertiary institutions.

According to him, many candidates
who perform poorly in Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) can
secure admission through nepotism, bribery and corruption while many other
candidates who perform excellently can be denied admission.

Saleh said that in spite of the
fact that more than 500,000 candidates scored above 200 marks, representing 50
percent of the total mark, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)
reduced cut-off mark to 120.

He said that the cut-off mark
represented only 30 percent of the total examination mark of 400, adding that
100 marks fixed for Polytechnics and Colleges of Education was 25 percent of
the total mark.

On their parts, Reps. Henry
Archibong, Rita Orji and Abubakar Chika called for the scraping of JAMB and the
UTME.

They stated that lowering cut-off
marks for admission into tertiary institutions was a signal that the Board had
outlived its usefulness.

The lawmakers also accused JAMB
of buckling under pressure from privately owned universities, many of whom were
seeking to increase the number of yearly admissions into their schools.

Rep. Abubakar Chika (Niger-APC),
a former lecturer at the Polytechnic, said it was highly disappointing that
JAMB could succumb to pressure from private institutions, which he alleged had
long pushed for cut-off marks to be lowered.

“Let me even open up, this
decision was taken because of private universities. They usually need to admit
the children of the rich, who are not ready to work hard,’’ he said.

Rep. Afe Oluwookere (Ondo-APC) described
the new policy as “highly detrimental’’ to the country’s push for economic
growth and development.

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